The Confessions in the Forest
by Alyssa86InMN
Summary: This is my first attempt at a case fic, so be gentle.  Booth and Brennan get a case in a national forest, so they head up to Minnesota.  Set in Season 6, some spoilers.
1. The Breakup

**A/N: I didn't have a beta for this story because I couldn't make up my mind on who to select. If anyone is interested in beta-ing the rest, let me know. I have about 5 chapters already written, but I'm only going to post updates once a week, maybe more frequently if I write a lot. I'm going to school too, so I have to make time to study as well, so writing this isn't my first priority. As the summary stated, this is my first case fic and I'm a little nervous about how it will be received. I wasn't even going to start posting this until I had it completely written out, but I couldn't wait any longer. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it, please leave a review!**

Seeley Booth had never been in quite the quandary that he was in right then. He was living with a beautiful blonde named Hannah and felt maybe one day he could have a future with her. The only problem was he was in love with another woman and had been for what seemed like forever. On this particular April evening, he was heading home after a long day of doing paperwork as there wasn't a case on his desk at the time. He opened his door carrying in the Thai take out he had picked up for he and his girlfriend.

"Hannah? You here?" he called as he rounded the corner into the kitchen to set everything in his arms down. "Hannah?" he called again as he walked into the living room. There his girlfriend stood, her spring jacket on and a few cases of luggage at her feet.

"Hi, Seeley." she said simply.

"Are you going somewhere? Is the Post sending you somewhere again?" he asked, knowing Hannah's job at the Washington Post as a reporter could take her anywhere at anytime.

"No, I'm leaving." she said, looking down to her luggage. She met his eyes once again and dove into her explanation, "I can't keep living this lie."

"What lie?" Booth interrupted.

"Seeley, let me get through this." she said harshly. "I can't keep living this lie. I know you don't love me. I know you still love her. I can see it in your eyes. They light up when she enters the room. And don't deny it, I've seen it happen every time she is with us. I can see she loves you too" A tear fell down her face.

"I've moved on. I told you my partnership with Bones is strictly a work thing. Nothing more."

"Seeley, you are lying, we both know it. You never moved on. I was simply a rebound girl for you."

"Hannah, you are not a rebound…"

"I've made my decision." she asserted. "I'm leaving tonight. I will come by for the rest of my stuff another time." With that she picked up her bags and moved toward the door. Booth didn't stop her. She opened the front door, stepped out into the apartment corridor and closed it silently behind her. She was gone and Booth stood in his living room, unsure of what to do next.

Temperance Brennan considered herself a rational human being, so it came as a big surprise when she found herself feeling that irrational feeling called love. While away in the Maluku Islands, she had a lot of time to think about her relationship with Booth. She didn't come to any big revelations while away, but when she came back, she never expected Booth to have moved on and have a serious girlfriend. She was blown out of the water, so to speak, by her reaction. She was jealous, although it took weeks of confirmation from Angela for her to realize this. After a particularly hard case though, one that left Brennan reevaluating her life, she found herself in her best friend's office, searching for advice.

"_How do you know when you are in love?" she asked Angela, slumping down into a couch in a defeated manner._

"_Why, sweetie? Is something troubling you?"_

"_I never told you this, but last year, Booth said he wanted to give us a shot and I said I couldn't do that. I essentially told him I am a scientist incapable of love.""Sweetie…" Angela began, looking sad for her friend's ignorance when it comes to matters of the heart. "You are more than capable of love. You do love Booth, maybe not romantically, although I think you do, but at least familial. You love me. You love Hodgins, Zack, your dad and Russ… You are more than capable of love, you are too afraid to acknowledge it."_

"_I don't know what love is. I need evidence of love. Physical signs that prove love."_

"_You can't compartmentalize love like that. It's a feeling you get. You just know. You know that you never want to spend a day away from this person. You feel happy just having them in the room. Your face flushes, your hands tingle, your heart skips a beat when you look into their eyes. You smile because they are smiling. You just know that without them in your life, you wouldn't be complete."_

_Brennan sighed and began to ponder what Angela had just said. "I think I feel that way about Booth. I think I already knew, just hearing your definition of love, solidifies what I had suspected."_

_Angela grinned widely, "oh Sweetie, I'm so glad you finally realize it."_

"_I'm too late though…" Brennan said sadly. _

After outwardly admitting her feelings for Booth to another person, granted not the person she needed to tell, Brennan tried her best to neither let her newly discovered love affect her partnership with Booth nor affect Booth's relationship with Hannah. As much as it hurt her to see Booth fall in love with another woman, she knew his happiness meant more to her than being the woman he loved. Brennan had begun to grow used to spending her nights in, alone with her laptop working on her latest novel. It startled her this particular night, though, when there was a familiar knock on her door.

"Booth! What are you doing here at this hour?" Brennan asked, eyeing her partner, who looked upset and ragged. "What's wrong?"

"Can I come in?" he asked, rubbing his hand over his five o'clock shadow.

"Yes, of course!" she said, moving out of the way so he could enter her apartment. Booth moved toward the couch and plopped down into it. "What's wrong?" Brennan asked again.

Booth sighed deeply and rested his head on the back of the couch, looking dejected. "Hannah and I broke up tonight."

Brennan was sad for Booth. She didn't like seeing him this way. She was used to his perky self and seeing him so down, made her feel down as well. She walked over to the couch and gently lowered herself next to Booth. "I'm so sorry, Booth." she said sincerely.

"It wasn't working out. We weren't going anywhere." Booth said, honestly.

"What happened?"

"I came home and she had her bags packed and she told me she couldn't keep living this lie anymore. She knew that I didn't love her." Booth wanted to tell Brennan the reason he wasn't in love with Hannah was because he was in love with her. He so badly wanted to tell her, but his deep seeded fear of being rejected once again stopped him, so with that he left out the most important reason for the break up.

"I'm really sorry, Booth." Brennan said, reaching her arms out to him and embracing him. Her heart started beating wildly and she knew the close proximity to the one she loved was the reason why. Little did she know that Booth's heart was doing the same thing.


	2. The Trip North

**A/N: Sorry for the delay in posting this. I went through a minor crisis in my personal life that left me feeling blue for about a week and then I got behind in my biology reading... needless to say I haven't had the time or the energy to write. I have my next bio test next week, so hopefully I can start writing again after that.**

**5 months later…**

"Bones! Pack your bags, we have a case!" Booth exclaimed as he sauntered into Brennan's office that September morning.

"Why do I have to pack a bag?" she immediately asked, looking up from her computer where she was putting work into the next chapter of her novel.

"We are going to Minnesota."

"What's in Minnesota?"

"Absolutely nothing…" Booth said, coming to stand right by Brennan at her desk.

"Then why are we going if there is absolutely nothing there?" Brennan asked seriously.

"I was kidding, Bones. There's a set of decomposed remains for you to examine in a national forest. Some archaeologists on a dig found the body buried in a shallow grave nearby."

"I will have to inquire about this archaeological dig. It sounds intriguing."

"Yeah, there's nothing intriguing about Minnesota." Booth said, showing his obvious disdain for the northern state.

"Minnesota is quite beautiful this time of year, Booth. I visited there once for a lecture series at the University."

"Yeah, yeah, Bones. I'll believe it when I see it. I'm not looking forward to freezing my ass off though." Booth complained again and Brennan gave him a glare. "All right, Bones, come on, we have a plane to catch!"

B&B

After landing at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport, Booth and Brennan rented an SUV and set off on the four hour drive to the Chippewa National Forest, which was pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

"I will admit, it's a lot warmer than I was expecting this place to be." Booth said as he drove the interstate, glancing over at Brennan in the passenger seat.

"Of course, it does get quite hot here in the summers. You can't honestly expect the cold to last all year round."

"Well, I've never been here, so I didn't know what I was expecting." Booth admitted. "Although I was fully expecting the people to be Neanderthals or something, being secluded in the middle of nothing."

"Neanderthals have been extinct for thousands of years, Booth."

"I know that, Bones. I meant I was expecting them to be boorish and stupid."

"Oh, well, Minnesota has one of the highest literacy rates in the country." Brennan stated.

"Thanks for sharing that, Bones." Booth said sarcastically.

B&B

Three hours into the drive, Booth got tired of the silence between the two of them and was tired of looking at tree after tree, lake after lake, so he decided to bring up a touchy subject.

"So, Bones, are you still seeing that businessman? What's his name? Barry?"

'Jerry. We went out for drinks last night. We almost had intercourse afterwards, but I was very tired so I left his place early." Bones stated, unaware of the grimace her partner was making at the mention of her having sex with another man.

The last five months after Booth and Hannah broke up were a little tense between the partners. They secretly loved one another, both afraid to admit it. Booth knew that if something were to happen between them, Brennan would have to be the one to make the first move. He wasn't about to have his heart stomped on again by her and he assumed Brennan would never have the faith in their relationship to admit her love. He was starting to accept for the second time that nothing would ever come of their relationship. He would always love Brennan, but if he couldn't have her completely, then he thought he would be fine just being her partner. As long as he was something to her, he was happy, at least that is what he believed. When Brennan began to date other men after Booth and Hannah broke up, it was the final nail in the coffin for Booth. He needed to move on.

"I don't think I'm going to see him again though." Brennan stated with a sigh as she looked out the passenger side window at the reds, yellows and oranges of the changing trees.

"Why is that?"

_He isn't you. _She turned to look at Booth and said, "while physically he is very pleasing to the eye, I don't feel as though we connect on an intellectual level." _And he isn't you._

"Well that's too bad. I want you to be happy, Bones, you know that right?" Brennan smiled sadly and nodded. "I want you to experience true love. I want you to love someone so much that you will throw your beliefs about marriage out the window."

"That will never happen." Brennan said matter-of-factly.

"Never say never, Bones." Booth smiled wistfully as he turned his head back to the road, knowing he would never be the man that changed her mind.

**Reviews are love, by the way. :-)**


	3. Trivia

**A/N: Alright so I had my bio test tonight and that now means I have a little more free time to write, that is until my next bio test ;-) I have been anticipating this test to finally be over with for weeks simply because it meant I could write again. I hope you enjoy this chapter.  
**

When they arrived at the little town called Cass Lake, it was nearly 6pm and the sun was beginning to set. The FBI had made reservations for the pair at a hotel in nearby Bemidji, but Brennan wanted to see the remains immediately before they were compromised, which she suspected they already had been.

"Bones, it's getting dark, the remains will be there tomorrow. Why don't we just get something to eat and go to our hotel, get a good night's rest and get up really early tomorrow and see the crime scene. I don't even think this Podunk little town has the right lighting equipment for us to be of much use tonight."

"But, Booth, the remains are being compromised as we speak…"

"Bones, I'll have someone guard the scene to ensure nothing happens to the remains."

"But…"

"I'm not arguing with you. We will go there bright and early tomorrow morning."

Brennan gave up trying to argue, surprising Booth at how fast she gave in. It was a good thing she didn't know where in the forest the remains were because Booth was certain Brennan would have taken herself to the crime scene in the middle of the night while he slept.

B&B

They drove the thirty minutes from Cass Lake to Bemidji and found a little pub right by their hotel called Brigid's Cross. Little did the pair know that on that night the pub had it's weekly trivia game and all the proceeds for the night went to charity. They had arrived just in time for registration.

"Bones, we would totally win if we played! You know everything!" Booth exclaimed as he stood by the registration table near the entrance.

"I am very intelligent but I do not know everything." Brennan stated.

"Come on, Bones, let's sign up! It will be fun!"

"Fine, but you're buying dinner if you're going to make me play."

"Alright, Bones!" Booth said excitedly as he quickly jotted down their names on the sign up sheet. The pair took a seat in a booth and looked over the menu. "I'm getting a burger."

"You always order burgers. Why don't you try something different?" Brennan said.

"Why change a good thing?" Booth looked over his menu at Brennan and smiled. "What are you getting then, Miss Adventure?"

"I will probably get the mushroom soup and a salad."

"See, you always order a salad, I always order a burger and you always steal my fries. We have a dynamic going, why bother changing it?" Booth stated.

Brennan smirked. "Well, I am also ordering a beer or two, since technically we aren't on the job quite yet."

"I might as well do that too."

The flame haired waitress soon came and took their orders and it wasn't long after that that their food came. They sat in companionable silence while they ate and Brennan did what she usually did and stole Booth's fries. Soon after they were finished, and two beers later, the trivia competition began. They moved to the designated area, which was a row of tables, and were set up with buzzers. Most teams had five people on a team, but their team was only the two of them. Booth was certain they would do well despite that.

"Alright everyone! I am Logan and I will be your host for tonight's Brainstormer Trivia competition. Tonight's charity is for the local humane society, so drink up because animals need your money!" People chuckled at his attempt at a joke. "So, tonight we have six teams, so when I say your team name, I want you to raise your hand so we know who you are. The first team is, Packers Suck, where are you?" Logan asked scanning the tables when a group of burly men with football jerseys on raised their hands. He named off the remaining groups before coming to Booth and Brennan's. "And the last one is Heart and Science. That must be you two." Logan said, pointing to Booth and Brennan. Booth nodded with a smile.

"Why did you choose that as our team name?" Brennan inquired.

"Because it describes us perfectly." Booth said, taking a sip from his third beer.

"Is everyone ready?" Logan asked. "The first question is an animal question." he looked over some note cards with trivia questions and began, "What do you call a castrated rooster?"

Everyone looked around at the other tables, some shrugged not knowing the answer. Booth was surprised when he heard their buzzer going off. "A capon." Brennan shouted.

"That is correct!" Logan shouted, "one point for Heart and Science!"

Booth stared wide-eyed at Brennan, "how in God's name did you know that?"

"You'd be surprised by what I know, Booth."

The game quickly progressed. Brennan didn't get a few questions, mainly the ones about sports. Booth attempted to buzz in on the sports trivia, but the team Packers Suck, always beat him to it. Down to the last two questions, Brennan, not realizing how much she had drank as the game was progressing, started to feel the affects of the alcohol. Her brain felt foggy.

"Two more questions, everyone!" Logan announced. "What is the largest island in the world?"

Brennan knew the answer, it just wasn't coming to her. "Booth, I don't know the answer!" she whispered. It was too late, the team behind them in points answered and got it right, tying the game up.

"Okay, Bones, one more question right and we win." Booth said, trying to get Brennan psyched up.

"Last question everyone! Who is the patron saint of dentists?" Logan asked.

Booth looked over at Brennan, who shrugged. He quickly brought his hand out to the buzzer and hit it. "St. Apollonia!" he shouted.

"That is correct, making Heart and Science the winners!"

Booth and Brennan looked at each other with big smiles plastered on their faces as they stood up. They gave one another a quick hug as they went up to Logan who gave them their prize.

B&B

They left the pub, holding their little souvenirs from winning and walked toward their hotel. "I think I drank too much." Brennan admitted. "I got so caught up in the game, I didn't realize I had three beers."

"Well, it's a good thing the hotel is so close, because I don't think I could have driven anyway, I had four beers myself. At least our money went to a good cause though."

"Yeah, that's true." Brennan said, as they made their way through the hotel lobby and walked to their rooms. They had rooms right next to each other so they stopped just outside of them to say their goodnights. "Well, I guess I'll see you in the morning." Brennan said, sighing deeply. She looked up to Booth and they met each others eyes. She smiled shyly, feeling her heartbeat pick up. He started to fidget, but maintained eye contact with her. Within seconds, Booth had his arm around her waist, his hand in her hair and his lips pressed firmly on hers. Brennan wrapped her arms around his neck in hopes of deepening the kiss. Their tongues met as the pent up passion and affection they had for one another revealed itself in that kiss. They continued to make out, right there in the hallway of the hotel.

Booth sobered up enough to realize he couldn't let this continue. It would ruin everything if they let this thing progress to sex. "Bones, Bones…" he whispered, as he pulled away.

Brennan opened her eyes, dark with passion. "What's wrong, Booth?'

"We can't do this." he said. "We can't let this happen, not this way. We are both practically drunk, you aren't a one-night-stand, Bones. We have to stop."

Brennan stepped away, dejectedly. She looked down at the floor, embarrassed. "Okay, then, I guess this is goodnight." she said, as she turned on her heel and walked to her room, avoiding eye contact with him. She unlocked her door, stepped inside and closed it behind her. Booth stood in the hallway, trying to figure out what had just happened. There was no way he could move on after that.

**Reviews are love, by the way. :-)**


	4. Temporary Hiatus

**I am going to have to take a hiatus on this story. I haven't had the time to devote to writing with my classes. I'm trying to get straight A's this semester and in order to do that, I need to focus all my energy into biology. Sorry guys, I hope to be able to return to this soon, but realistically it's looking like December.**


	5. Examining the Remains

**Here's a short chapter to let you guys know I haven't forgotten this story. The hiatus did help with school though (got an A in biology, not sure about my writing course though). Just an FYI, I haven't seen any episodes since the Science Dude episode because I have vowed to stop watching until Hannah is gone. I desperately want to watch all the episodes, but I can't handle the angst right now. I have read spoilers though, so I do know the jist of what is going on. Needless to say, this story is not reflective of what is going on in Season 6.**

The next morning, Booth was feeling anxious about approaching Brennan after the kiss they shared the night before. He didn't sleep well, staying up late analyzing what the kiss meant. He came to the conclusion that Brennan was just trying to satisfy her 'biological urges' that she talked about and it was nothing more than that. It didn't help him sleep better though, because it made him crazy realizing how close he had come to kind of having what he wanted. He knew having her sexually didn't mean she loved him and that was really the only thing he wanted.

Brennan didn't sleep any better than Booth. After leaving the hallway after being rejected by him, she fell into bed, still wearing her day clothes and let the tears fall. Him stopping them from going further concluded for her that he really did not have feelings for her. She ended up crying herself into a fitful sleep. She awoke the next morning, determined to focus solely on the case and try to forget about the night before. She got out of bed, dressed herself in new clothes, applied makeup to cover her puffy eyes and headed to the lobby for breakfast.

Booth left his room and nervously walked the short distance to Brennan's room, where he knocked on the door. He waited for her to answer, but there was no response. He knocked a little harder thinking she was sleeping. Still no answer. He started to bang on the door and called her name. "Bones!" he shouted, then dropped his voice as he said, "about last night…"

"Booth?" Brennan said, coming up behind him, carrying a bagel and some coffee.

Booth turned quickly with a look of surprise on his face. "Oh, Bones, I thought you were ignoring me or something."

"Why would I be ignoring you?" she asked, knowing full well what he was talking about.

Booth hesitated, "uh…never mind. I see you were at breakfast. Why didn't you wake me?"

"I didn't want to bother you, but now that you are up, we can head to the forest and get a good look at those remains."

"Alright, but first, I'd like to get some breakfast."

B&B

Booth called the county sheriff's office and told them to meet him and Brennan at the crime scene, which was located half an hour outside of Cass Lake in the national forest. It was nearly 7am when they arrived, leaving a good 12 hours of daylight for the preliminary investigation.

"Hello, I am Special Agent Seeley Booth and this is my partner Dr. Temperance Brennan." Booth introduced themselves to the sheriff when he arrived.

"I'm Sheriff Cain Whitman."

"So, what's the story?" Booth asked.

"Well, some archaeologists and volunteers were conducting a dig in this area when one of the volunteers discovered the skull."

"What were they digging for?" Brennan asked, standing over the partially uncovered, decomposed remains.

"You'll have to ask them that. You can talk to them at the station. They called off the dig once the body was found, but they all stayed in the area to talk to you."

Brennan knelt by the remains, living up to the name Squint as she eyed the body with determination. "Female. About nineteen to twenty-seven years of age. Never given birth."

"Do we have a murder?"

"I can't say I am 100% certain but judging by the broken hyoid and the trauma to the skull, I'd say it is possible this woman was murdered."

"All right, Sheriff Whitman, I'll have the forensics team collect the evidence and some samples and then I will need to start interrogating the archaeological team who found the remains."

"Okay, I'll call Judy at the sheriff's office to let her know to round up the team and we can meet them at the station.


End file.
